Ischemic lesions associated with subcortical white matter occupy over 20% of all ischemic stroke types. Ischemic white matter lesion have markedly different clinical aspects including leukoaraiosis having few or no neurological deficit, localized white matter infarction causing hemiplegia/dysesthesia, and vascular dementia caused by repetitive ischemic injuries in subcortical white matter. Unlike a case associated with ischemic lesions occurring in the cortex, a speech disorder or severe memory impairment is known to be a rare case.
Demyelination and oligodendrocyte (OL) damages are prominent features of ischemic white matter injury, and thus ischemic OL damages after subcortical white matter injury are targets that have been considered as an important therapeutic strategy.
The only therapeutic agent for ischemic stroke that has been authorized so far a drug for reperfusion of a blood vessel. Most of therapeutic agents for ischemic stroke that have been attempted several times to undergo clinical trials served as drugs to prevent neuron apoptosis, and it is now in a difficult situation to develop therapeutic agents for white matter stoke that can defend against demyelination and OL damages.
Meanwhile, KR 2012-0075457 disclosed that inflammatory and autoimmune diseases can be treated by using an antibody to a toll-like receptor.